Throughout the Cold War, specifically between 1948 and 1951, the Czechoslovak secret police implemented Operation Border Stone, a scheme designed to entrap individuals attempting to flee the communist regime. To achieve this, they constructed counterfeit border crossings near West Germany, tricking escapees into believing they had successfully reached the West. The police then conducted sham “welcome” interviews, further reinforcing the illusion, only to guide the unsuspecting refugees into the clutches of the actual authorities.
One of the earliest escape attempts…
One of the earliest escape attempts to bypass the Berlin Wall was by Heinz Meixner in 1963. He removed a convertible’s windshield and deflated its tires as low as possible. He, with his fiancee and her mother hidden, then drove up to the boom barrier, sped under it, and escaped into West Berlin.
During the Cold War, the Icelandic…
During the Cold War, the Icelandic government imposed a ban on black US soldiers on its US base for the purposes of “protecting” Icelandic women and preserve a homogeneous “national body.”
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To train new operatives during the…
To train new operatives during the Cold War, the Soviets built fully functional replicas of American towns. Their residents consisted of retired deep cover operatives who taught the trainees everything they needed to know about blending into American life.
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During the cold war, soviet…
During the cold war, soviet troops weren’t issued toilet paper in the field, leading to them using official documents; Spies were sent in to retrieve these documents from disposal bins. It’s seen as one of the most successful espionage missions of the cold war.
During the Cold War a…
During the Cold War a ‘Three world’ model arose to describe nations either aligned with NATO (first world), the Eastern Bloc (second world) or the ‘Third World’. Rather than economic this was a political grouping loosely describing ‘unaligned’ nations in the ‘developing world’.
Vaclav Bozdech, a soldier in WWII…
Vaclav Bozdech, a soldier in WWII, found a puppy while on the run and planned to kill it so its barking would not alert the Germans. Unable to bring himself to do so, he took it with him, and the dog later helped find survivors of an air raid and saved Bozdech’s life during the […]
Jimmy Carter’s national…
Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser was once awoken to a report of 2,200 incoming Soviet missiles: a false alarm due to the malfunction of a 46 cent chip. He wanted further confirmation, and as he lay there in bed in the early morning hours, he decided not to wake up his wife, because if Washington, […]
The US Air Force seriously considered…
The US Air Force seriously considered and researched nuking the Moon as a show of force after Russia launched Sputnik, but scrapped it at the last minute as they felt landing on it would be better received by the public. 00
Digital cameras were developed…
Digital cameras were developed so spy satellites could send images back to earth more quickly. Before digital cameras in 1976, spy satellites used film. After the film was shot, the satellites loaded the footage into capsules and dropped them from orbit into the atmosphere for collection. 50